Food Vocabulary | The Rambling Epicure

New Food Vocabulary: What’s a Foodalanche?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, May 30, 2013 Permalink 0

Foodalanches and Properly Packed Fridges / Food Storage

There’s nothing more amusing than looking up outlandish words and definitions about food (or other subjects) on the Urban Dictionary site.

Today’s word is “foodalanche,” meaning “an occurrence during the process of opening a fridge or similar container and having all the food fall on top of you.”

A properly packed fridge allows circulation of cold air around every article

Who amongst us hasn’t been guilty of filling the refrigerator so full that when we open the door, everything comes tumbling out like an avalanche? Just the vibration and movement caused by the opening of the door causes all those tightly packed goodies to come plunging forth into a pile on the kitchen floor, leaving broken jars, burst packages, and milk splashing onto our shoes and clothes. And then there’s the mess to clean up, of course…

An overpacked fridge like this does not allow circulation of cold air around articles, so cooling is inefficient. It also causes foodalanches!

It is important to realize that simple physics tells us that food doesn’t cool properly when it doesn’t have air around it, since the refrigerator cools the air, and the air in turn cools the food. But does that mean we’re not guilty of it?

Example of usage of the word

foodalanche:

Here we go again. There were so many beautiful fruits and vegetables at the farmers market today that I just couldn’t avoid buying them, so when I opened the door, there was a real foodalanche! (Yes, that’s really me talking.)

Food Vocabulary: What’s a Femivore?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, May 13, 2013 Permalink 0

by The Femivore’s Dilemma

Are you a Grist? This word was recently added to the Urban Dictionary.

Origin of the Term “Femivore”

The word was coined by Peggy Orenstein in her essay “The Femivore’s Dilemma” for today’s New York Times Magazine, says Natural News, and is obviously inspired by the term “locavore.”

Educated career women, or “femivores”, all over the U.S. are choosing to give up their careers and go back to the farm (sometimes an urban farm) and back to the kitchen — often the same women who refused to take anything even vaguely similar to a Home Economics class, much less a class in agriculture. DIY, raising chickens and gardening are back, and there is an abundance resources available on the Internet for those who are new at it offering detailed how-to’s and recipes for all of it, with popular DIY sites such as Mother Earth News, Middleground Farm, and Mother Earth News. Femivores often reach out from their newly chosen isolation through blogs and social networks, and share their discoveries, successes and failures with other femivores, such as writer Esmaa Self on Middleground Farm or “backyard eggs”.

This became the subject of a heated debate a few weeks ago when Michael Pollan’s book came out. On Is Michael Pollan a sexist pig? Emily Matchar questioned whether Pollan was a “sexist pig” in saying “we need to get back in the kitchen,” since “American women cook 78 percent of dinners, make 93 percent of the food purchases, and spend three times as many hours in the kitchen as men.”

Michael Pollan Wants Women to Get Back in the Kitchen
Back to the kitchen, ladies
Back to the kitchen, ladies
In ‘Cooked,’ Michael Pollan Argues Importance of Making Your Own Food
In ‘Cooked,’ Michael Pollan Argues Importance of Making Your Own Food
Food Vocabulary: Are You Foodwired?

Food Vocabulary: Are You Foodwired?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, March 28, 2013 Permalink 0

The Urban Dictionary now lists the word “foodwired” as part of the American vocabulary.

People who are foodwired are extremely conscious about the food they eat and the food they buy, as well as where it came from and whether it is healthy and sustainable.

According to the Urban Dictionary, if you are foodwired, you:

know the importance of eating local, healthy, sustainable food
want to know more about what you eat
try to make better decisions about what you eat

Examples:

She asked the waiter whether the chicken was organic. She is totally foodwired.

The neighbors are growing food in every inch of their small urban yard. They are really foodwired.

Today, I’m really foodwired. I cooked with totally organic, local ingredients.

What we’re reading: food sculptures, hugging carrots, revolting cakes, Salone del Gusto 2012, 100 best American cakes

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, November 1, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Click here to keep up with the latest in world food and wine news.

French Food Facts: What’s a Potée?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, July 6, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

The term “potée” refers to dishes cooked in an earthenware pot, in particular soups and stews. Every region in France has its own version, and it can be compared to what the French refer as the “eternal pot.” Potée Lorraine from Alsace is the most widely known.

Most potées are made with pork and vegetables, the most frequent being cabbage and potatoes.

Newfangled Food Vocabulary: Kitchentuition

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, April 23, 2012 Permalink 0

“Everyone knows that a plausible candidate for a wife must have kitchentuition,” says the Urban Dictionary.

“Kitchentuition” refers to someone who is a wonder in the kitchen, and has that magic touch when it comes to using knives, cutting boards and just about every other kitchen utensil, i.e. kitchen intuition.

The term “kitchentuition, not to be confused with ‘kitchen tuition,’ “is a bit sexist, but at least it’s not offensive in any other ways, like many urban dictionary terms,” says the Urban Dictionary.

Newfangled Food Vocabulary: Shemomedjamo

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Permalink 0

I love this article from Cracked about nine foreign words we really need to incorporate into English. Here is an excerpt of one of my favorites:

Shemomedjamo (Georgian)

Means:

To eat past the point of being full just because the food tastes good.

Here is a word that describes such a quintessentially American phenomenon it’s shocking that another culture came up with it first. After all, there are entire civilizations that have never heard of “never-ending pasta bowls” or “dessert pizzas.” Fortunately, the Georgians (the European Georgians, that is) devised a word to describe it exactly. “Shemomedjamo” is the act of eating to the point where your body says, “OK, we did it! We’re all done now,” and then muscling through another three steaks.

The literal translation for shemomedjamo is “I accidentally ate the whole thing,” which is a charming way of saying “Oh my God, why isn’t somebody stopping me?!”

Newfangled Food Vocabulary: Food Stalking

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, March 12, 2012 Permalink 0

“The act of observing the tables around you at a restaurant and ordering what the other diners are eating.”—Urban Dictionary

I’m a true food stalker when I eat in a new restaurant and gawk at what each diner around me is eating before ordering myself.

Newfangled Food Vocabulary: What’s a Carnevoyeur?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Permalink 0

According to the Urban Dictionary, a carnevoyeur is “a vegetarian who derives satisfaction from watching other people eat meat or hearing about the eating of meat.”

It refers to the type of person who says she’s a vegetarian and talks about it ad nauseum, but can’t resist asking if she can have a taste when she sees a plate of boeuf bourguignon or crispy fried bacon.